TheMutator

My Mutator Mods contains that. The problem is, that all those mods, including mine, do change your gender temporary. But what is the alternative, hiring the original voice actor to redo the scene as well as all banter sequences? Probably not. Removing the voice of all those conversations altogether and replacing it with text and subtitles? Na, I don't think so.

Yes it is possible. You see, all the enemies are categorized into spawn groups and there are, like for everything else that happens, certain parameters in the game, that get set if a group is defeated or a plot event has happened. A mod can very simply reset those marker variables to their original value and the group will be there again. However, defeating groups of enemies does often trigger certain special cutscenes or does set very specific parameters (set quest markers, give plot items, ...), that are very important later on. Messing around with this can and most likely will break the game to the point where a savegame becomes utterly useless and "damaged" so to speak. Someone has to go very, very carefully through the scripts to make sure, that this won't happen and I can almost guarantee, that the first few versions of such a mod will break the game none the less as this is a massive game and tinkering with one part tends to have unforeseeable consequences later on. However, there are other possibilities that are a better choice to continue the fight. For example, why not expand upon the arena in the dwarven section of the game. It shouldn't be hard to make a mod that allows infinite repeatable arena matches with different enemies and situations. Or build entirely new locations in the game and make sure, they are repeatable. So, adding stuff is easier and a lot more compatible than manipulating existing areas.

I can second that. The problem with texture mods is always the same. There are professional artists behind projects and products this big and continuity and coherence is more important that fidelity. What do I mean? Well, most games have much higher resolution textures to work off but then compress and remove details from them on purpose to make them more in tone with the rest of the product. Yes, game artists do make textures look worse on purpose and it makes perfect sense if you delve into the psychological aspects of aesthetics and wholeness. Lifelike, real textures just look terrible silly on character models and architecture with the low level of details Dragon Age has. The overall style must be maintained or players might feel uneasy about the result because subconsciously they feel that something doesn't match together. I certainly felt that way in oblivion with those excellent texture mods available there. A little bit more details is always a matter of preference and can enrich the experience but sooner or later the community will cross the border into the absurd.

Thanks for your consideration and if you run into any speed-bumps, let me know. Say, have you already found a way to pry open ERF files without resorting to the toolkit? 2da shouldn't be terrible hard to realize since it is a well known and documented format but the "Encapsulated Resource File" is a proprietary BioWare thing. You might be able to reverse it from the toolkit in the same way keygens are created though (reverse, extract, enrich, recompile).

Yeah, I know how it works now but since you are looking for new options and ways to manage the mods I thought it would be a good idea to throw this concern in anyway. :smile:

I do have one request though. Installing/uninstalling and prioritizing addin-mods and zipped override mods is all well and good but it would be a good idea to respect already existing override-only mods, folders and their location/names. As you might know, I maintain and use the override folder in the profile path and create new subfolders there. My installer does prioritize, copy, rename and manage files in those subfolders already and if a third party were to manipulate my files and folders, then that would be highly inconvenient. For me, the users and you, as this would no doubt create various support requests. I imagine other authors might agree here. Well, try my mutator mod and you'll see what I talk about.

"with the highest priority loading first and the lowest priority loading last." No, the opposite as you have outlined yourself above. The highest priority is always loaded last because it overrides the previously loaded content. But it might just be a type on your behalf because you explained it correctly in the previous post. And yes, modders shouldn't be allowed to choose because most of them have clearly no idea how m2da works and they would simply make their mods load with the highest priority and be done with it. Until you can do it automatically which no doubt will take you loads of hours of coding to get there, you should empower the users with this choice.

You can use my mod to significantly raise the chance of encountering this part of the game.

The tactical birdview is kind of useless if you play a mage or archer. Either it should zoom out more or it should allow something in between the bird and the shoulderview. As I am aware, the tactical view isn't higher because of performance issues with the game and that's why it is possible to move the camera around to see more of the battlefield. However, I do have a strong machine and so do others. I'm fairly sure this is something that is absolutely impossible to do in usual mods. One would need to edit/wrap the binary or poke around in the memory. This sounds challenging and since reverse code engineering is actually my specialty (nocd patches, trainers and the like) I might give it a shot but my time is currently limited. At the very least I will be able to collect data on the issue which may be helpful anyway.

Yeah sorry, I wasn't paying enough attention. Something I usually chastise other for so I apologize.

It would be a good idea to not replace the whole "spell_singletarget.ncs" but simply strip it down to the spell one wants changed, apply the changes and then compile it with a different name which is then referenced in the "abi_". In this way one can achieve the highest level of compatibility.

That's easy, just edit, compile, rename the abi_base.xls and put it into your override folder. Done.

Actually, the mods in the override folder have a higher priority than the patch has. Which means, that if you have mods, than override the whole abi_base (cooldown remover) or the itemprops (old dex fix) files, then the patch simply won't be active but the mods will be. So, there is only a very small chance of conflicts and problems but the patch content simply won't work for you. I hope this helps now to weed out all those badly written mods, that completely disregard the m2da principles.

---------------------------------- Files added:5 ---------------------------------- E:\DragonAge\bin_ship\GameuxInstallHelper.dll E:\DragonAge\bin_ship\patch.exe E:\DragonAge\bin_ship\patchw32.dll E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\patch\patch001.erf E:\DragonAge\packages\core\patch\patch001.erf ---------------------------------- Files [attributes?] modified:70 ---------------------------------- E:\DragonAge\bin_ship\daorigins.exe E:\DragonAge\bin_ship\daoriginsgdf.dll E:\DragonAge\docs\PatchNotes.txt E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_arl01al_redcliffe_villag.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_arl02al_redcliffe_castle.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_arl101ar_redcliffe_night.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_arl230ar_castle_upstairs.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_bdn03al_orzammar_prison.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir100ar_docks.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir110ar_inn.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir200ar_tower_level_1.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir210ar_tower_level_2.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir220ar_tower_level_3.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir230ar_tower_level_4.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir240ar_tower_harrowing.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir300ar_fade.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir310ar_fade_burning_to.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir320ar_fade_darkspawn_.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir330ar_fade_mage_asund.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir340ar_fade_templar_ni.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir350ar_fade_weisshaupt.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir360ar_sloth_demon.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir361ar_alistair.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir362ar_dog.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir363ar_leliana.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir365ar_morrigan.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir366ar_oghren.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir368ar_sten.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir369ar_wynne.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_cir370ar_zevran.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den02al_den_market.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den100ar_brothel.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den600ar_landsmeet_chamb.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den921ar_wide_1.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den922ar_wide_2.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den950ar_alley_justice_1.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den951ar_alley_justice_2.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den952ar_alley_justice_3.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den962ar_falcon_attack.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_den963ar_landry_attack.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_epi100ar_coronation.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_epi200ar_players_funeral.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_epi300ar_post_coronation.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_lot100ar_lothering.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_lot120ar_danes_refuge.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ntb310ar_top_level.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ntb330ar_lair_of_the_und.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz02al_orzammar_commons.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz03al_orzammar_nobles.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz04al_orzammar_slums.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz05al_orzammar_proving.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz08al_dead_trenches.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz230ar_gangsters_hideo.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz320ar_royal_palace.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz520ar_aeducan_thaig.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_orz540ar_anvil_of_the_vo.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_pre01al_kings_camp.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_pre04al_kings_camp_night.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ran120ar_mages_pages.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ran160ar_false_witnesses.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ran180ar_trickster.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_ran520ar_hw_army_elves.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_zz_al_debug.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_zz_banter_test_area.rim E:\DragonAge\modules\single player\data\al_zz_head_morphs_test.rim E:\DragonAge\packages\core\data\chargen.gpu.rim E:\DragonAge\packages\core\data\chargen.rim E:\DragonAge\packages\core\data\designerscripts.rim E:\DragonAge\packages\core\data\global.rim E:\DragonAge\packages\core\patch\patch000.erf ---------------------------------- ERF CONTENT:53 files ---------------------------------- abi_base.gda achievements.gda atl_chargen_dxt5_00.dds atl_chargen_dxt5_dat.xml chargen.gfx credits_core_pc_ru-ru.txt c_highdrag.tal_appr.ani c_highdrag.tal_appr.gad dir.txt gen_im_cweapon_revenant.uti gen_im_qck_book_talentm.uti gen_im_qck_book_talentw.uti itemstats.gda optionsmenu.gfx placeable_types.gda plc_portcullis_01_0.cp.evt plc_portcullis_01_0.oc.evt script.ldf arl101ar_redcliffe_night.are arl220ar_castle_main_floor.ncs bdn300ar_orzammar_prison.ncs cir000ar_core.ncs cir240cr_uldred.ncs cutscene_slideshow.dlg den100pt_brothel.ncs den600im_loghain_ring_2.uti den921ar_wide_1.are den922ar_wide_2.are den950ar_alley_justice_1.are den951ar_alley_justice_2.are den952ar_alley_justice_3.are den962ar_falcon_attack.are dir.txt epipt_main.ncs leliana.dlg ntb310ar_top_level.are ntb330ar_lair_of_the_undead.are ntb330cr_arcane_horror.ncs ntb330cr_arcane_horror.utc ntb330tr_arcane_horror.ncs orz210ar_tapsters.ncs orz340ar_assembly.ncs orz520ar_aeducan_thaig.are orz540ar_anvil_of_the_void.are orz540pt_anvil_ot_void.ncs orz550cr_bmother_tentacle.ncs orz550cr_bmother_tentacle.utc plt_epipt_main.plo pre100_duncan.dlg ran120ar_mages_pages.are ran160ar_false_witnesses.are ran180ar_trickster.are ran520ar_hw_army_elves.are